Feasts and Revells
But you are over-blest. Plenty this dayInjures; it causeth time to stay;The tables groane, as though this feastWould, as the flood, destroy all fowle and beast.And were the doctrine newThat the earth mov'd, this day would make it true;For every part to dance and revell goes.They tread the ayre, and fal not where they rose.Though six houres since, the Sunne to bed did part,The masks and banquets will not yet impartA sunset to these weary eyes, A Center to this heart.
Words in this poem
- revell v. t.
- To draw back; to retract. Harvey. [L. revellere; re- + vellere to pluck, pull.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Feasts and Revells is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, Feasts and Revells, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/feasts-and-revells.html, id L19891.
Form and metre
Feasts and Revells is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 91% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDEEE dayA · stayA · feastB · beastB · newC · trueC · goesD · roseD · partE · impartE · heartE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| But you are over-blest. Plenty this day | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Injures; it causeth time to stay; | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| The tables groane, as though this feast | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Would, as the flood, destroy all fowle and beast. | 11 | ····˘/·/˘·· |
| And were the doctrine new | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That the earth mov'd, this day would make it true; | 10 | ·········· |
| For every part to dance and revell goes. | 10 | ·/˘····˘/· |
| They tread the ayre, and fal not where they rose. | 10 | ·········· |
| Though six houres since, the Sunne to bed did part, | 10 | ··/······· |
| The masks and banquets will not yet impart | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| A sunset to these weary eyes, A Center to this heart. | 14 | ·/···/˘··/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.